No. Customer service rep and office assistant jobs are projected to shrink, while medical assistant, electrician and HVAC mechanic jobs grow. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects medical assistant jobs will grow 12.9% from 2025 to 2035. Your best first move is a growing job that reuses tasks you already do, like handling calls, scheduling or keeping records, with months or a few years of training.

Last updated: October 29, 2026

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Why it matters

Age matters, but it does not close the door. In the BLS Displaced Workers Summary, 72.9% of workers ages 25 to 54 who lost a long-held job in 2023 to 2025 were working again by January 2026. For ages 55 to 64, it was 57.3%. Across all ages, about 49% of those who had lost full-time jobs and were back in full-time wage and salary jobs earned as much as or more than they did at their lost job.

Experience counts. Stanford's Digital Economy Lab found that in June 2026, employment of workers ages 22 to 25 in highly AI-exposed jobs was about 19% below the trend for peers in less exposed jobs. "Experienced workers show no comparable gap." The lab says, "These are descriptive patterns, not causal estimates of the effect of AI."

Most moves take some learning. A September 29, 2026 McKinsey Global Institute report modeled workers who may need to change occupations. It estimated "only about one in seven can make the move with no or very limited retraining." McKinsey calls such estimates "not measurements of observed change." Using Lightcast data, it found credentials are required by "roughly 85 percent of growing jobs."

Moves that reuse what you know

Start from your tasks. Figures below are the same BLS projections for 2025 to 2035, with May 2025 median pay.

  • Office assistant to medical office assistant: secretary and administrative assistant jobs fall 6.0% ($47,540); medical secretary jobs grow 4.8% ($45,930). Both typically need a high school diploma.

  • Customer service rep to medical assistant: rep jobs fall 5.3% ($44,770); medical assistant jobs grow 12.9% ($45,690). Programs "take about 1 or 2 years to complete."

  • Bookkeeping clerk to medical records specialist: clerk jobs fall 5.6% ($50,670); records jobs grow 7.8% ($51,140). They typically need a postsecondary certificate.

  • Any of these to a trade: electrician jobs grow 9.2% ($63,190). On training, BLS says, "Most electricians learn their trade in a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship program." Apprentices are paid while they train. HVAC mechanic jobs grow 10.9% ($61,010). Programs "generally last from 6 months to 2 years," and the EPA requires nearly all HVAC technicians to be certified in proper refrigerant handling.

  • With a degree, office supervisor to medical and health services manager: jobs grow 24.2% ($123,860). Managers typically need a bachelor's degree, though requirements may vary, and "work experience in an administrative or clinical role."

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Growing does not mean safe from AI. BLS rates medical secretaries and medical records specialists as having very high AI exposure, but says, "Exposure does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability, or wage effects."

One popular target is shrinking. Computer user support specialist jobs, the IT help desk, are projected to fall 3.5%. BLS Table 1.12 says their "share decreases as more businesses offshore their computer user support or solve computer troubleshooting needs using generative artificial intelligence (AI)."

Search for the task, not the title

Some employers keep the old title and add AI to the duties. On October 26, 2026, CVS Health posted a customer service representative job in Hartford, Connecticut, at $20.00 an hour. One duty was to "Utilize AI-enabled tools during training and servicing." On October 15, 2026, Community Hospice & Palliative Care in Jacksonville, Florida, posted a healthcare data analyst job. One duty was to "verify all AI output against source data before use."

Search the task words, like "AI-enabled tools" or "verify AI output," plus your field, in the CareerOneStop Job Finder.

What training costs

  • Apprenticeship.gov says apprentices "Earn a competitive wage from day one."

  • Public two-year colleges charged $4,150 on average in tuition and fees for a full-time, in-district student in 2025 to 26, according to the College Board.

  • For 2026 to 27, the Education Department's Pell Grant letter says "the maximum Pell Grant award remains fixed at $7,395," for a full-time, full-year student. The letter adds that this can change if Congress acts.

  • Under a federal rule published May 19, 2026, Pell can also pay for approved programs of "a minimum of 8 weeks, but less than 15 weeks of instruction."

  • Your local American Job Center is the door to training money under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). On August 26, 2025, the Labor Department encouraged states to use WIOA funding "to help youth and adults develop artificial intelligence (AI) skills."

If you run a small business

Start with one task. In the two weeks from September 21 to October 4, 2026, 24.6% of U.S. employer businesses used AI, and 24.3% of firms with 1 to 4 employees did, according to the Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey. The Small Business Administration says, "AI is relatively new, so start small," and to "have another person review all AI products." Its resource partner finder lists free or low-cost advisers.

What to do next

For workers

  1. Text READY to 20202 for the free Make America AI-Ready course, 10 minutes a day for 7 days.

  2. Enter your current job title in mySkills myFuture, or rate your skills in the CareerOneStop Skills Matcher, and write down two nearby jobs.

  3. Call your nearest American Job Center and ask whether WIOA can pay for that training.

For small businesses

  1. Ask your local Small Business Development Center to help you pick one task to test with AI.

  2. Time one repeated task, like writing quotes, this week. Then try an AI tool on it, and have a second person check every result.

Sources

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